(a) Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a shell-and-multi-triple concentric-tube reactor and a shell-and-multi-triple concentric-tube heat exchanger. More particularly, it relates to a compact shell-and-multi-triple concentric-tube reactor and a compact shell-and-multi-triple concentric-tube heat exchanger which are capable of efficiently obtaining a desired product through a catalytic reaction of a reactant by supplying a heating medium and the reactant, and capable of effectively controlling a reaction through a heat exchange between the reactant or a heat exchange target material and the heating medium.
(b) Background Art
In general, a shell-and-tube multitubular reactor and a shell-and-tube multitubular heat exchanger (hereinafter, referred to as a shell-and-tube reactor and a shell-and-tube heat exchanger) are a compact reactor and a compact heat exchanger which have a reactor and heat exchanger structure in which a shell side at which a heat exchange material is supplied is coupled to a bundle of multiple tubes formed by installing a plurality of tubes filled with reactant gas and a catalyst, and are very effective in performing catalytic reactions such as chemical reactions which generate heat or absorb a large amount of heat, particularly, a synthetic fuel producing reaction and a hydrocarbon reforming reaction.
In particular, since the shell-and-tube reactor and the shell-and-tube heat exchanger have a structure in which a bundle of tubes, which has a smaller diameter than that of the existing single-tube fixed-bed reactor and the existing single-tube heat exchanger, is applied to smoothly exchange materials and heat and maximize performance of the catalyst, the shell-and-tube reactor and the shell-and-tube heat exchanger are evaluated as being effective for a GTL (gas to liquid) process which produces synthetic petroleum from natural gas, a GTL-FPSO process which is applicable to a marine environment, a petrochemical process, a fine chemical process, and an energy environment process.
For example, because a Fischer-Tropsch synthesis reaction, which is a key reaction of the GTL process which produces synthetic petroleum from natural gas, generates a large amount of heat, and thus a smooth heat exchange is required between a catalyst layer and a heating medium in order to prevent a hot spot, the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis reaction is greatly affected by a shape of a reactor as well as a reaction condition.
In the case of the aforementioned shell-and-tube reactor, a plurality of reaction tubes is filled with a catalyst, reactant gas is supplied through inlet ports of the reaction tubes, a product and unreacted gas are discharged through discharge ports, and a heating medium circulates through a shell side so that a chemical reaction may occur under a heat exchange condition optimized by being controlled.
The reactor is useful as the Fischer-Tropsch reactor that produces liquid phase synthetic fuel by using synthetic gas made by reforming natural gas as briefly mentioned above, and the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis reaction produces long chain hydrocarbon synthetic fuel through a hydrocarbon chain propagation reaction using synthetic gas including hydrogen and carbon monoxide obtained by reforming natural gas by using reactant gas.
The Fischer-Tropsch synthesis reaction is a reaction which generates a large amount of heat when synthesizing synthetic fuel, and thus it is very important to smoothly perform a heat exchange in the reactor by designing an optimal reactor as well as a reaction condition.
In the case of the GTL-FPSO process which targets a limit gas field on the sea and associated gas by applying the GTL process to a marine environment, the entire process needs to be applied to a limited space on a ship, and as a result, a compact GTL technology in which a volume thereof is greatly reduced compared to the existing GTL process is required in consideration of the limitation to a size, a height, and a weight of an apparatus or the like, and particularly, there is an acute need for development of a GTL-FPSO technology which utilizes the compact GTL technology.
A structure of a typical shell-and-tube reactor is configured such that multitubular catalytic reaction flow paths, which are used as unit reactors and filled with a catalyst, are installed, and for example, in the case of a synthetic fuel synthetic reaction, the structure of the shell-and-tube reactor is configured such that a flow of synthetic gas for a synthetic reaction and a flow of a heating medium fluid are not mixed together, and as a result, heat of the heating medium is effectively transferred to respective unit reactors, such that reaction heat of the catalytic reaction is effectively controlled, overall operational efficiency of the reactor is improved, and the operation is easily carried out, and thus the shell-and-tube reactor is advantageous in terms of scale-up of the reaction process as well as the operation of the reaction process.
FIG. 1 illustrates a cross-sectional view of a typical shell-and-tube reactor. The shell- and tube reactor includes a catalytic reaction flow path through which a reactant flows in at an upper side of the reactor and flows out at a lower side of the reactor, and includes a separate inlet port and a separate discharge port such that a heating medium flows on a shell inner surface, thereby performing a heat exchange between heating media which flow at an outer side of the catalytic reaction flow path and on the shell inner surface.
In consideration of the aforementioned important point of the reactor and the heat exchanger, presently, research of a reactor, which continuously includes regions for a reaction and regions for controlling (cooling/heating) a temperature between a plurality of stages in the shell-and-tube reactor having the plurality of stages and a plurality of tubes, is being conducted.
As a related art, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/481,107 (hereinafter, referred to as Literature 1) discloses a shell-and-tube reactor having a plurality of stages, and includes a bundle of regions in which reactant gas flow regions and coolant flow regions are separated from each other in a longitudinal direction.
As another related art, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/260,651 (hereinafter, referred to as Literature 2) discloses a reactor including a cooling system which improves cooling efficiency by applying a double type tube, which has a vertically protruding and sealed end, to a shell type reactor including a cooling system.
However, a hot spot and a cold spot are present during a reaction which generates a large amount of heat and absorbs a large amount of heat even in the shell-and-tube reactor and the shell-and-tube heat exchanger for typical cooling/heating, and in this case, a shape of a reactor, which may improve heat exchange performance of the catalyst that causes a reaction, is important.
Therefore, in order to control a change in temperature due to an exothermic reaction and an endothermic reaction which occur in the catalytic reaction flow path, a shape of a reactor, which maximizes heat exchange performance by adding a shell side heating medium, allowing the heating medium to additionally flow into the catalytic reaction flow path, and performing a heat exchange inside and outside the catalytic reaction flow path, is required.
That is, there is a need for a configuration, which minimizes a difference in temperature between the reactant gas and the heat exchange target material between an inner partition wall and a central portion of the reaction flow path by minimizing a difference in temperature between the hot spot and the cold spot of the reactant gas and the heat exchange target material and by maximizing heat exchange performance.
However, Literatures 1 and 2 do not disclose a separate configuration for improving a difference in temperature between the reactant gas and the heat exchange target material, which are generated in the reaction flow path.
Therefore, the present patent is intended to present a shell-and-multi-triple concentric-tube reactor and a shell-and-multi-triple concentric-tube heat exchanger which maximize heat exchange performance of the shell-and-tube reactor and the shell-and-tube heat exchanger.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.